A TALE OF TWO WOMEN

Last week was the performance of my farewell to the theatre. At eighty-one years of age I’ll probably not be on a stage again because you have to realize I probably won’t be able to remember my lines.

For several years I have had scenes featuring two women in each of two dramas but didn’t know how to make them into a presentation for an audience. I knew they were powerful, but would people be interested in one scene about the sexual problems of one sister and the marital problems of the other sister? Put that way they probably would, but I didn’t write that premise in the publicity. The other scene is with a young woman intent on committing suicide and the mother trying to stop her.

I was invited by an “old times radio cast” to read the scripts with one of their cast members. She and I had participated in play readings in our community for several years, but those readings were of comedies. They were overwhelmed with the reading of the drama and encouraged us to do both.

In order to present two scenes as an entertainment which could cover at least one hour in duration, I wrote an introduction to the first reading where I gave an overview of the first act of “Dark At the Top of the Stairs” and the part of the second act which introduces the scene between the two sisters. After the reading, I then told the story of the third act conclusion, all in the character of Cora, the lead in the Tony Award winning play.

We handled the scene of “’night Mother” the same way but it calumniated with the daughter telling her mother ‘night Mother and then the gun shot is heard. An unexpected moment leaving the audience stunned.

My partner and I played off of each other very well. Theater people who were there said I became my characters which is the best compliment an actor can receive. I was able to build my on my relationship with my sister as well as the one with my daughter. All the characters we portrayed were totally believable.

Audience members can be moved by people on the stage but are not able to define what makes a good performance. They will say they like something but that’s about as far as they can go. A friend asked me if I was deluged with calls from people who attended the show because it was so compelling. I told her no one called.

The End